As most have heard by now, the remaster of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles will not support local multiplayer. Yes it sucks. No, the devs aren't being lazy or locking it behind a paywall, and no, those people are misremembering how the original worked.

So how DID the original multiplayer work?

Every player needed a GBA and the controller link cable to connect it to the Gamecube. This meant that if you want a full four player experience, you needed the following::

*A Gamecube (duh)
*The game itself (also duh)
*A GBA per player
*A GBA to GC cable per player.


That shit was NOT cheap! As convoluted as this setup was, it was the only way you could have multiplayer in the game without a pause menu stopping the action. Ya see, each GBA controller was also its own menu for that player. This means that someone can go into their menu (which you will do a lot to switch gear and commands) without it affecting the action on the TV. Real time pause! Could this have worked in the current gen? Possibly, but not without its own issues. Unlike the Gamecube, you can't have the Switch on the big screen AND use it as a handheld controller at the same time. It could also be possible to have your friends use their Switches as the handheld controller while player 1 uses the big screen TV, but it would also make the pause menus for that sole player interrupt the action or at least cover up the screen, which also means the other players are affected. This style of play would also NEVER work on the Playstation 4 since its controllers are just regular ass controllers, thus everything has to be on the one TV screen.

From what I see, this style of player only works on mobile because everyone has their own screen and it's not connected to a central screen. Likewise, if this game came out for PC, it would work the same way since, again, there's no central screen to worry about.


FFCC was just plain weirdly designed and it's not something that can just be fixed in a patch without a design overhaul
/armchairdev